Cabinet structures employing one or more horizontally-openable drawers are extensively utilized in offices and similar environments for storage of files, miscellaneous papers, and miscellaneous other objects. Such cabinet structures, including those referred to as “lateral files”, generally provide a plurality of horizontally-openable drawers which individually have an upwardly-opening box-shaped structure defining a storage compartment. In many instances the box-shaped drawers are fairly deep, particularly those which are designed for storage of files and similar papers. However, the storage demands of a user may vary over time, and the user's storage needs may be such as to require fewer deep-compartment drawers since the articles being stored may be more suitable for shallow drawers. While various adaptor structures are available for disposition within the drawer to create various storage levels or compartments, such adaptors typically do not permit convenient access to articles stored below the adaptor without requiring entire removal of the adaptor, or in the alternative the adaptor is not effective for providing storage and/or access to the entire horizontal interior of the compartment over multiple levels.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved insert for an existing drawer, which insert includes upper and lower insert drawers which are each of shallower depth and fit within the original drawer compartment in a generally vertically stacked relationship, which upper and lower insert drawers are coupled between the original drawer front and the remaining original box structure, in which the insert drawers are horizontally slidably mounted one above the other so that full opening movement of the drawer front horizontally extends the upper and lower insert drawers into a fully open position which simultaneously enables vertical access into the up-facing compartments of both the upper and lower insert drawers.
It is a further object of the invention, as aforesaid, to provide a drawer insert which can be easily retrofitted to an existing cabinet drawer and which involves a simple demounting of the original drawer front from the remainder of the original drawer box structure, with the lower insert drawer being mounted to the drawer front and horizontally slidably coupled to the upper insert drawer, the latter in turn being coupled to end walls of the original box structure, thereby enabling a simple conversion of the original deep drawer to a pair of shallow insert drawers which are vertically positioned above one another when the original drawer front is in closed engagement with the cabinet, but which enables the upper and lower insert drawers to be horizontally displaced from the cabinet by suitable opening movement of the original drawer front into a first position wherein both insert drawers are horizontally displaced so that the upper drawer is accessible, and then into a second horizontally opened position wherein the drawer front is displaced horizontally further from the cabinet so that only the lower insert drawer is displaced horizontally so that both drawers are simultaneously vertically accessible.
It is a still further object of the invention, as aforesaid, to provide a drawer insert which enables conversion of a standard existing drawer requiring few if any tools, primarily only whatever tools are required to disassemble the original drawer front from the original drawer box structure, with the drawer insert being assembled and coupled between the original drawer front and the remaining end walls of the box structure without requiring specific tools or threaded fasteners.
In accordance with the present invention, there is initially provided a conventional drawer arrangement having at least one upwardly-opening drawer supported on a cabinet and horizontally movable from a closed position wherein the drawer front closes off a front opening of the cabinet, and an open position wherein the drawer projects horizontally outwardly of the cabinet so that a vertically deep compartment defined by the drawer is vertically accessible. The original drawer typically includes an upwardly-opening box structure defined by a bottom wall which extends between parallel upright end walls (herein the “original” end walls), the latter typically mounting horizontal slide arrangements which also coupled to the cabinet side walls, with the drawer front typically being joined to front edges of the original end walls, such as by screws cooperating between opposed abutting flanges, and with an upright rear wall projecting upwardly from the bottom wall and extending horizontally between rear edges of the original end walls. A drawer insert according to the present invention is mounted to the original drawer by first disassembling or disconnecting the drawer front from the remainder of the original box structure. The drawer insert includes lower and upper insert drawers which are each of shallower compartment depth, with the lower insert drawer having generally parallel upright end panels which are mounted to the drawer front adjacent opposite ends thereof, which mounting preferably is free of threaded fasteners and the like. The inner end panels of the lower insert drawer are sandwiched between and horizontally movably supported on generally parallel upright outer end panels which are fixed to opposite ends of the upper insert drawer. These outer end panels in turn are positioned adjacent and are fixedly coupled to the original end walls, such as by locking tabs provided on the outer end panels to create a snap-type locking engagement with the original box structure end walls. The horizontal slidable connection between the inner and outer end panels enables the insert drawers to be disposed vertically one directly above the other for storage within the cabinet when the door front is in the usual closed position. Movement of the drawer front horizontally outwardly into a first open position pulls the entire insert and box structure outwardly of the cabinet to permit vertical access to the upper insert drawer. Further outward displacement of the drawer front into an extended open position effects release of a detent which cooperates between the adjacent end panels and moves the lower insert drawer horizontally outwardly from beneath the upper insert drawer into a fully extended position, thereby permitting simultaneous vertical access to both the upper and lower insert drawers.
With the improved drawer insert of this invention, as briefly summarized above, a single deep-compartment drawer can be easily converted into a dual-drawer arrangement so as to provide two readily-accessible shallower drawer compartments, which conversion can be effected during manufacture if desired, but more significantly can be easily converted at a use location merely by disconnecting the original drawer front from the remainder of the original drawer box structure, and then assembling and connecting the drawer insert between the drawer front and the original end walls of the drawer box structure, which connection of the drawer insert to the original box structure can in accordance with this invention be carried out without requiring complex or special tools.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with structures of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
Certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience in reference only, and will not be limiting. For example, the words “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “rightwardly” and “leftwardly” will refer to directions in the drawings to which reference is made. The words “inwardly” and “outwardly” will refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, the geometric center of the structure and designated parts thereof. The words “inward” and “outward” will also refer to directions of drawer movement, these respectively being movement of the drawer in closing and opening directions. The above terminology will include the words specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof, and words of similar import.